Artist Profile

The vivid imagination of conceptual artis Ralph McQuarrie brought to life the characters and worlds envisioned by George Lucas. McQuarrie's paintings and drawings were instrumental in the push to bring Lucas's Saga to the big screen, giving shape and form to a multitude of fantastic individuals, creatures, planets and technology encompassed in this epic tale. developed in collaboration with McQuarrie himself, this remarkable action figure series pays tribute to the man whose art defined some of the most memorable characters in film history.

A concept painting done by Ralph McQuarrie depicts an early version of the Luke Skywalker character as a young woman. The initial character envisioned for the epic was explored in various ways including whether "Starkiller" would be male or female. This image in this painting captures the heroic idealism of the character that was to ultimately become Luke Skywalker.

Very few figures cause such stirs of confusion like 2007's TAC Concept Starkiller Hero did. And Hasbro as well as many other collectors were surprised why so many were perplexed with this action figure. Question: Is it Luke Skywalker or is it Princess Leia? Answer: It's neither. [Deak] Starkiller is in and of itself a completely new character unto her own. It's true that Starkiller eventually became Luke, but her life started out as the central character of George Lucas' epic Star Wars storyline irrespective of Luke Skywalker. Her "existence" was only one phase of which direction the central character of Star Wars would take. Hasbro did a great job faithfully recreating a two dimensional drawing into a three dimensional action figure (under the direction of the beloved Ralph McQuarrie) and there really isn't too much to pick at as far as the action figure is concerned. Many of the McQuarrie characters are colored in various shades of the color purple (unless they're Imperial soldier and in that case they're mostly white). Concept Starkiller Hero has been very well done and she is loaded with accessories making her one of the most accessorized McQuarrie figure in the entire 30 (77-07) line.

Concept Starkiller Hero's most impressive feature is her face. Part Campbell's soup kid, part Luke Skywalker and part random female, Hasbro got all the features in place perfectly and have expertly designed a portrait that is immediately familiar to the group shot McQuarrie's painted a long time ago. She has the right shade of lipstick and a very feminine face and her head gear has been sculpted to sit atop of it beautifully. Her outfit reminds us of something we would see in Robin Hood (without the space gear of course) and on top of a purple body suit are tall boots, gloves and sleeveless outerwear with a very large collar. Her backpack is attached to a harness which falls down the front and back of her and tubing reaches upward with a gas mask at the end of it. Great care was taken to design all of her parts and they all fit as needed on her body. She comes with a lightsaber and blaster pistol and can hold them without any issues. It's a blue lightsaber blade (which has been a standard color in McQuarrie's prolific artwork). Her body is very athletic looking and it looks like as if she would have no problem defending herself in space.

Concept Starkiller Hero has 16 points of articulation. This is a figure that would have been better suited with ankle joints just for the mere fact that she has too widespread of a stance. Our sample falls over often and we find it necessary to pose her with a stand. We are not sure if this is a frequent issue with others, but it is something that deters us from giving her a perfect score. The paint job is stunning on her. She is covered with an extremely subtle (you'll have to look for it) dirty wash that spreads across the tan/brown portions of her. Hasbro has decided to keep her purple sections rather clean. This works very well because it leaves the collector with the impression that the brown sections are some sort of leather product (or something similar). Her color outfit is such a strong contrast from her milky (pale) face that it really makes her facial features pop out. Her hair is a very yellow blonde and the curls look spectacular. Concept Starkiller Hero is a near perfect rendition of the character in McQuarrie's artwork and one of the prettiest female action figures our collections have seen. She comes highly recommended.